Chinese *5th Column and Spies in Canada

 

My opening statement I made years ago in 2000...Ive repeated again this past 2020..now again this 2026 Please Note: *Sidewinder Scandal

Chinese *5th Column and Spies in Canada



I guess I should explain myself as a [new blogger]: I come with a mission to expose (the inevitable) march to the new serfdom for what it is.
That involves this Behemoth into the global arena, ultimately in our faces.
 I won't be pulling any punches, but will deliver this topic 'raw & sometimes in a graphic manner the way I see it. The global media is soft-peddling this topic, oftentimes ignoring blatant truths. The media has meted out fear in reporting our collective tenuous trade & financial issues in an increasingly uncertain economic world. Hyper-inflation will be the topic during 2012 going forward, because of what this nation will do..as it watches the struggling USD and the designed America fail. The rest of the developed world will hang on to what semblance of democracy & order that remains moving ever so slowly, bit, by bit into their hands resulting in a new global order. Look to Canada, it's leaders and as China's new feudal state, conveniently situated on the American border. Canada will be used as a proxy battleground, a US/Canada confrontation will be planned from Beijing using their current leaders.

Feel free to add, repost and engage in debate with this Blog.

I'm sure you'll find it neither arbitrary, nor boring.
I look forward to all your comments... CD

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 On this page you will find a brief history of Chinese intelligence service infiltration of Canadian society: from higher education and business to the highest instances of political life.

Communist/socialist ideology requires an effort to propagate itself throughout the world until every government and society is won over for the cause of "classless society".

This is nothing new, and everyone should be familiar with these ambitions after 50 years of "Cold War" and ideological struggle between East and West, socialism and democracy; free enterprise market vs. planned economy.

But how is it that right after the "Cold War" was over that we fell victims to not-so-secret ambitions of Chinese communist expansion plans?

That is the question I intend to answer here as best as I can, as we can look back at the evidence and developments throughout the past years.

Let's test hindsight, shall we?

Project "Sidewinder" And CIC Scandal

This is a good starting point for our inquiry, as a joint effort of CSIS and RCMP yielded this preliminary report on Chinese communist influences in Canada back in 1997.

Chinese Intelligence Services and Triads Financial Links in Canada
 Feel free to download, print and share this "smoking gun" with Canadians

This is when the cat was about to get out of the bag, but she never really did.
Even though the evidence of these links was ever-present in this report, somehow, it failed to trigger any kind of wider investigation and/or publicity.

One of the official reasons for discrediting accusations contained within was "spelling mistakes"??? (I only found a couple myself).
While only handful of officials and journalists tried to keep this problem in the spotlight - it went out of Canadian public's view for good.

At the same time, I assure you, the links and influences got stronger and multiplied.

As of right now this report is forgotten and actually hard to find - even on the net.  Hard to believe, isn't it?

Speaking of hard to find... CTV's W5 magazine did a piece on corruption in Canadian embassy in China featuring Brian McAdam and other first hand witnesses to widespread culture of bribes and profiteering on improperly issued visas for Chinese nationals of shady backgrounds.  We're talking well known criminals and intelligence officers.

In the meantime this episode had been taken down from the official CTV website, and is scarcely available even on "YouTube".

Kudos for the following articles and their authors.  Thank you guys!

On Sidewinder~ Download and share please!

And now for some wholesome and courageous Canadian patriots:

Cpl. Robert Read

Cpl. Robert Read a 26 year veteran of the RCMP was fired after investigating government corruption involving the Canadian High Commission in Hong Kong. In the course of his investigation he uncovered evidence of the corruption and what appeared to him to be a massive cover-up of that evidence. Read‘s investigation involved very rich and powerful members of the business community in Hong Kong, political connections in the People‘s Republic of China and the Liberal government of Jean Chretien.

An RCMP external review committee later vindicated Read saying the Mounties had seriously mishandled investigations into complaints that Asian triads had infiltrated the embassy. The committee also found that the national police force was reluctant to investigate foreign affairs employees who were suspected of taking bribes from China‘s rich and powerful, many of whom are widely known to be part of the communist spy network. In its ruling, the committee said that Read was justified in taking his concerns to the media and ordered him reinstated. The RCMP refused.

Read took his case to the Federal Court of Canada. In June 2005 Judge Sean Harrington condemned Read for “a lack of loyalty to the government” and reaffirmed his firing. Read has since appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, which in May 2007 declined to hear his case.


Direct Energy Weapon?

Brian McAdam 


Brian McAdam's 30 year career in the foreign service ended suddenly in 1993 after he exposed corruption at the Canadian Consulate in Hong Kong and the infiltration of Chinese organized crime members and spies into Canada. His work saved the Canadian government an estimated $50 million, prevented the entry of over 1,000 organized crime figures such as Triad, Yakuza, and Mafia members into Canada, and revealed China's extensive espionage activities in Canada, which have now been confirmed by Canada's intelligence service, Chinese defectors and others.

Selwyn Pieters 

Selwyn Pieters was fired after going public about wrongdoing at the Immigration and Refugee Board. While the board says it axed him for tarnishing its image by lying to the media. He argues in Federal Court documents that his dismissal was in retaliation for blowing the whistle.

 

Nvidia’s Trump ties draw scrutiny after reports Huang was targeted by Chinese intelligence

Mon, Nov 9 2026

• Revelations about Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s affair with a suspected Chinese spy are putting his close relationship with President Donald Trump under scrutiny, even as Trump continues to defend him.
  
• Huang and other Nvidia executives have helped direct at least $26 million toward Trump-backed projects, including his White House ballroom and inaugural fund, while the chipmaker spent a record $2.15 million on federal lobbying in the third quarter.
  
• Congressional Republicans and Democrats are raising national security concerns, putting fresh attention on Nvidia’s Washington influence operation and the Trump administration’s response to intelligence warnings.

watch now

VIDEO03:07

How Nvidia’s Huang influenced Pres. Trump’s China policy

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has spent the past two years cultivating an unparalleled relationship with President Donald Trump, gaining extraordinary access and influence over federal artificial intelligence policy as his company has pushed for looser restrictions on selling advanced chips to China.

Now, revelations about Huang’s affair with a suspected Chinese spy are putting that carefully built alliance under scrutiny — along with the millions of dollars Huang and other Nvidia executives have spent expanding the company’s political influence in Washington.

The chipmaker is nearly inseparable from its co-founder and CEO Huang, who during Trump’s second term has gone from being nearly unknown to the president to being part of a small cadre of executives accompanying him on Air Force One.

Nvidia has committed at least $26 million to Trump’s pet projects, including $25 million toward his White House ballroom and $1 million to his 2025 inaugural fund. The company initially sought to keep its ballroom contribution anonymous, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Its ballroom pledge was tied with Apple’s for the largest disclosed corporate contribution, the Post reported.

Those ties are drawing renewed scrutiny from congressional Democrats, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who pressed Huang in November 2025 about Nvidia’s ballroom donation and White House contacts. Blumenthal re-upped his warning on Thursday, while expected incoming House oversight Chairman Robert Garcia, D-Calif., vowed to investigate corporate corruption when Democrats take control in January.

Trump continued to defend Huang on Sunday, calling him an “honorable guy” and saying he had heard nothing suggesting wrongdoing. The president was briefed about the suspected Chinese intelligence operation in October 2025 but chose not to act, according to The New York Times. Secretary of State Marco Rubio oversaw a classified memo detailing the concerns this spring, the Times reported.

The president’s defense underscores how Huang has become one of Trump’s most prominent allies in the technology industry, repeatedly praising the president, attending White House events and accompanying him on a trip to China in May. Trump is due to return to China next week for a summit with other world leaders.

Congressional scrutiny on Huang ramped up after the Times reported Oct. 29 that U.S. intelligence determined Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen who is an executive at Singapore-based cloud computing company Megaspeed, was funneling information to Beijing and had “developed a close relationship” with Jensen Huang. The two Huangs are unrelated.

House Republican committee leaders on Thursday asked Jensen Huang to sit for a closed-door briefing on his ties with Alice Huang, saying recent reports “raise significant national security concerns regarding the PRC’s access to sensitive U.S. technology and information.”

In a statement to his company on Sunday, Jensen Huang admitted to the affair and apologized. He also revealed that Nvidia’s board of directors has “initiated an independent investigation,” which he said he supports and will cooperate with.

“I love our country and our company. I am committed to protecting NVIDIA and supporting America’s national security. I am proud and grateful to be an American,” the CEO said.

Nvidia didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told CBS News on Monday morning that “high-level” Trump administration officials would lead a classified briefing for lawmakers later in the day. An administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting, told CNBC U.S. intelligence chiefs John Ratcliffe and Jay Clayton were previously scheduled to lead a classified briefing on threats related to Iran with top congressional leaders.

Later Monday morning, the Times reported that the Commerce Department was investigating Megaspeed until August 2025, when the probe was abruptly transferred to the Department of Justice following outreach from Nvidia’s general counsel about the matter.

Thomas Wackman, spokesman for Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, told CNBC in a statement, “BIS conducts all enforcement strictly by the book. BIS enforces aggressively across the board, including with respect to chip smuggling, and enforcement is at an all-time high.”

The DOJ did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

“NVIDIA’s CEO just confirmed a relationship with a suspected Chinese spy,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee who is expected to chair the panel next year, posted on X Monday morning. “Congress is back today. We have legislation ready to go to stop advanced AI chips from fueling China’s military.”

Huang’s access to Trump has coincided with a series of policy reversals that eased restrictions on Nvidia’s chip sales to China, a lucrative market the company has fought to preserve.

In April 2025, Huang attended a $1 million-per-person dinner at Mar-a-Lago, after which the administration briefly held off on restricting Nvidia’s H20 chips before imposing the limits days later. Following another meeting with Trump in July, the administration reversed course and began approving sales to China.

In December 2025, days after another meeting with Huang, Trump announced plans to permit exports of Nvidia’s more powerful H200 chips to approved Chinese customers. The Commerce Department formally relaxed its licensing restrictions the following month.

Huang kept up the pressure in 2026, accompanying Trump on a trip to China as Nvidia fought congressional efforts to tighten export controls.

But Nvidia’s success in Washington has yet to translate into unfettered access to China. Beijing has withheld approval for large-scale H200 imports, leaving hundreds of thousands of chips awaiting shipment as of early November.

watch now

VIDEO02:23

Nvidia opens investigation into Jensen Huang’s relationship with alleged Chinese spy

Nvidia has also quietly ramped up its Washington influence operation, spending a record $2.15 million on federal lobbying in the third quarter — up 72% from the previous quarter and 10% from a year earlier, according to company disclosures. Its $4.69 million in 2026 lobbying expenses through September nearly matches the $4.97 million it spent in all of 2025.

The company’s in-house lobbyists include alumni of congressional offices from key Republicans and Democrats, including Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who previously chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

In June, Nvidia hired former Obama Commerce Department official and Intel lobbying chief Bruce Andrews to lead its Washington operation, then launched its first employee-funded PAC in August. The PAC raised more than $263,000 through September but had yet to back any candidates, according to a CNBC analysis of Federal Election Commission filings. Its next disclosure is due Dec. 3. Separately, two Nvidia executives — Gavin Sherry, vice president of software, and Sundeep Madra, vice president of hardware — each contributed $443,000 to the Republican National Committee on June 24.

The donations help illustrate the depth of Huang and Trump’s relationship as the $4.3 trillion tech behemoth Nvidia buoys the U.S. economy and lends crucial advantage over China in the race for AI dominance.

They also raise further questions about the Trump administration’s response to U.S. intelligence reportedly revealing that the loyal and powerful Nvidia CEO had a close relationship with a Chinese spy.

“Obviously Nvidia needs to take significant steps in its operations, security, and policy advocacy to ensure it takes national security concerns more seriously,” Chris McGuire, a senior fellow for China and emerging technologies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said in an X post Monday. “But it is even more important that the Department of Commerce tighten up export controls to prevent things like this from ever happening again.

“It is utterly baffling that despite being privy to this information for months, they have not taken even the most basic actions to protect the country, such as cutting off a company that is literally run by Chinese spies from buying AI chips,” McGuire wrote.

China is paving its 'belt and road' to British Columbia

China is paving its 'belt and road' to British Columbia

Surrey warehouse part of China's Belt and Road Initiative, say its proponents

Aug 18, 2020 

• 
  

Warehouse and trade centre now constructed in Surrey. The World Commodity Trade Centre was due to the backing of the CCP, as part of its Belt and Road Initiative, the CCP/PLA initiated, global trade initiative of China.

A major warehouse facility under construction in Surrey is not just paving the way for more trade between B.C. and China. It could be helping pave Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative to Canada.

The massive $190 million, 470,000-square-foot complex, dubbed the “World Commodity Trade Center,” is a joint venture between a Chinese state-sponsored company and a local development firm. The centre, first conceived in Beijing, has four warehouses and two large exhibition halls — to be lined with Chinese and Canadian flags — strategically located in the Campbell Heights industrial zone between Vancouver International Airport and the United States border.

The centre is purported to be one of several Chinese import-export facilities servicing a central commodities hub on the outskirts of Beijing, called Yanjiao International Trade City, being developed by brand company World Commerce Valley, a division of Hong Kong-based trading firm Shing Kee Godown Group. The centre is being developed through Canadian subsidiaries North America Commerce Valley Development Ltd. and Shing Kee Godown (Canada) Holdings Ltd. and in partnership with local development firm Pollyco Group.

The centre’s proponents say it will facilitate the packaging, processing and storage of outgoing Canadian commodities and incoming Chinese products, to be showcased at exhibition hall events and trade conferences — all driven by an e-commerce trade model. Its detractors believe it is the thin edge of the wedge in facilitating a stronger presence of Beijing-directed business in the region.

The Yanjiao International Trade City diagram shows the Beijing-area import-export "mother centre" and the foreign hub cities, including Surrey, Vancouver B.C. that will service it. 

A trailblazing memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) between the B.C. government and Guangdong province in 2016 precedes the project. This MOU, signed by former BC Liberal Premier Christy Clark, is the only such one in North America. Most Western jurisdictions have been apprehensive of Xi’s aspirations of emboldening China’s national and economic interests on a global scale, via the BRI’s foreign infrastructure investments and overseas financial, social and cultural programs, which initially targeted developing Asian countries.

Ground broke on the facility on October 7, 2018, with China’s consul general Xiaoling Tong taking centre stage, flanked by local politicians, development partners and associates of the United Front Work Department, a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agency that political analysts say promotes China’s interests among Chinese diasporas, often by persuading local Chinese organizations that may be sanctioned or supported by the department itself.

In interviews with political and trade experts, concerns have been raised over such foreign influence activities, as well as the potential cumulative impact of additional such trade facilities, which on their own do not meet the threshold for a federal government foreign investment review.

“Certainly the Chinese government develops these projects with a strategic mandate,” said Charles Burton, associate professor of political science at Brock University and senior fellow at the Canadian think tank MacDonald Laurier Institute.

BRI brand important in Beijing

A prominent figure of the United Front in B.C. is leading the project.

Guo Taicheng is chairman of Shing Kee Godown Group. The businessman is also executive vice-president of the China Federation of Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs, which is part of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (AFROC) of the CCP’s United Front.

Guo — who says he is a permanent resident of Canada, who splits his time between Beijing and Vancouver, where his family lives — markets the centre as a BRI project, however in an interview with Glacier Media, via a translator, he distances the project from Xi’s ambitious plan for global hegemony, first announced in 2013.

Guo Taicheng is chairman of Hong Kong-based trading firm Shing Kee Godown Group. The businessman is also executive vice-president of the China Federation of Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs, which is part of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese (AFROC) of the United Work Front, an agency of the Chinese Communist Party.

“The belt and road initiative only provides an opportunity, but the idea started from many years ago,” he said. “Whether or not there’s a belt and road or whether or not it comes to North America doesn’t concern us [Shing Kee].”

In November, 2014, Shing Kee and Pollyco signed a framework agreement on the centre at a Vancouver investment summit. In 2015 Shing Kee took part in an agricultural trade conference with B.C. and Canadian agriculture and trade officials in attendance.

Guo envisions Canadian food producers as key warehouse tenants. The Surrey facility, he said, will lease space to small to medium sized Canadian businesses and “offer them entry to the Chinese market.”

Guo said the market would dictate what comes back to Canada, suggesting at this time Chinese-manufactured personal protective equipment could be a hot import upon opening. (Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Xi announced intentions of a China-led “health silk road,” as part of the increasingly broad BRI mandate.)

Guo confirmed associations such as AFROC require approval from the Chinese government and “to join the association will certainly bring opportunities.”

But he said he is not a member of the CCP and the party “does not tell [him] what to say or not to say,” despite his standing in the organization. Rather, his sole focus is on improving his business, and that means increasing trade.

However, Guo evokes nationalist rhetoric espoused by Xi, when speaking about the trade centre, which his company asserts is to serve the Yanjiao “mother centre.”

As reported in Chinese state media, Guo told a trade conference in December 2017 that, “The current new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics is a new era for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and a new era for overseas Chinese and overseas Chinese.”

When asked why it is important for his company to focus on the BRI and purported CCP achievements, Guo said, “It’s just to follow the local rules because in China you have to show this type of picture and play by the rules.

And, “How the government views this [trade centre] plan is not up to us,” added Guo, who met with China’s Consul General Tong Xiaoling in Vancouver to discuss the BRI in February 2018, according to the consulate’s website.

China’s inroads to Canada should be more closely monitored,
experts say

Former ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques says while many development proposals in China may provide more rhetoric than substance, it is clear this one has some degree of support from the Chinese government — although time will tell whether or not Yanjiao is a “pie in the sky.”

Regardless, he said CCP-sponsored activity in Canada requires a closer examination.

“We should be worried about the activities of the United Work Front,” said Saint-Jacques.

Of some concern is the degree to which local projects, such as the trade centre, may be controlled in a manner to favour China’s interests over Canada’s, said both Saint-Jacques and Burton.

“I would be interested to look at the contracts the Canadian companies will be asked to sign. If the Chinese are forcing to sign long-term exclusive rights, then I’d be concerned. Companies should learn from the ongoing crisis from China they need to diversify their markets.

“I would be concerned if these guys are saying, for instance, we will become your exclusive exporter to China for your cherries, for example,” said Saint-Jacques.

Pollyco’s manager Hugh Carter told Glacier Media in an interview his company is tasked with marketing the development whereas Shing Kee brings “users who fit into the trading centre.”

But Carter said while the company was aware the trade centre was billed back in China as a BRI project, it is his understanding any Canadian business may lease warehouse space and exporting products to China is not a requirement.

If that is the case, Saint-Jacques said there’s little to worry about with this project specifically.

“Unless this facility offers some kind of advantage or premium for shippers to use it [to export to China], I don’t think this will be significant,” he said.

Burton said he would be particularly worried if Chinese companies bought or built several such facilities in the Lower Mainland.

“That would give China an advantage in sourcing goods to put [Canadian companies] in a position where we couldn’t diversify to other competitors. Arguably, the whole BRI is about re-orienting the global economy to China, because all the belts and roads go to China. No belts and roads go other places,” said Burton.

This could be done without any Canadian government oversight. And so, a failure to understand China’s cumulative impact on commerce in Canada can jeopardize Canadian interests, Burton asserted.

Part of the BRI strategy, said Burton, “involves keeping under the thresholds for government regulation.

“In other words, several projects involving the same investment that put together would cross the threshold for government examination of national security implications. I think that’s part of the strategy,” Burton added.

Presently, Canada has certain federal thresholds for foreign investment reviews: For a member of the World Trade Organization, such as China, any state-owned investment over $428 million requires a review. And the review for the private sector is $1.075 billion — far above the Campbell Heights project, which is larger than Amazon’s regional warehouse in South Delta.

Saint-Jacques is calling on the Canadian government to update its China engagement strategy, which should take a full look at China’s existing assets in Canada and include plans to diversify trade away from the authoritarian regime.

“This review will make sure we aren’t getting into any situation where national security would be at risk,” he said.

Washington, DC-based think tank RWR Advisory, which publishes the monthly Belt and Road Monitor, also states China’s economic policies pose national security risks to the United States and other Western jurisdictions.

That’s why all foreign investment should be tracked, even at the local government level, said RWR analyst Claire Chu.

“Being aware of the money flowing in and out of their territory — I think that’s really important,” said Chu.

Vancouver-area businessman Guo Taicheng speaks in 2018 to the All-China Federation of Overseas Chinese association in China. On February 28, 2018 Chinese Consul General Xiaoxiao Ling met with Guo in Vancouver. "The two sides exchanged views on issues such as promoting China-Canada trade and investment cooperation and participating in the 'Belt and Road' international cooperation," according to the consulate's website 

Chu said United Front activity can be a harbinger for China’s BRI objectives since these CCP-backed groups play a key role in business arrangements at the local government level.

“That’s increasingly a way China is influencing people from the bottom up and also getting into projects without having to wrangle with the central government,” said Chu, who describes a “huge network” of business people, community leaders and students.

“The idea of the United Front organization is to achieve influence, spread propaganda, spread Chinese government thoughts all over the world — and so a lot of [local groups] are called friendship societies or friendship organizations. They are active all over the world.

“This is not to cast a wide net of suspicion on a group of people, rather to explain that a lot of friendship associations will receive funding from these United Front organizations. It doesn’t mean they’re working for the [Chinese] government, but it does mean they’re more susceptible to government influence, government ideas and participating in government projects,” said Chu.

A tough critic of the CCP, Burton describes a muzzling effect on Canadian citizens and companies.

“The Chinese companies involved cannot be separated from other aspects of the Chinese regime in the sense they need permission from the regime to engage in trade and development projects. The condition is they support the other goals of the Chinese regime,” said Burton.

In turn, the local Canadian companies involved with such Chinese companies would likely need to fall in line with China’s interests, Burton asserted.

“None of the representatives in the (Canadian) companies would be likely to express concern, say, over the national security law related to Hong Kong even though they could well have strong Hong Kong connections and strong feelings …anyone who articulates such a position would likely lose the opportunity to engage in the economic benefits of a project because the Chinese partners would know if they co-operated with people seen as unfriendly to the Chinese regime, then they would suffer in their ability to function,” explained Burton.

Canada lacks foreign influence laws to register and regulate groups acting in the interest of foreign states, noted Burton at a February 24 meeting for the House of Commons Special Committee on Canada-China Relations.

“Australia’s 2018 Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act should be examined carefully by this Committee. Canada needs to come to terms with Chinese money benefiting Canadian political campaigns and rewarding Canadian politicians and public servants who are seen as ‘friends of China,’” said Burton.

The National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians 2019 annual report spells out much of the concern over CCP activity in Canada.

B.C. MOU first paved way for belt and road

Australia is also home to another rare MOU on the BRI in the West. Its pro-Beijing state government of Victoria signed one in October 2018, however its premier Daniel Andrews has since faced a substantial outcry for doing so, especially following Australia’s concerns over China’s handling of the COVID-19 outbreak.

British Columbia’s foray into China’s Belt and Road Initiative began with senior provincial politicians — namely then International Trade Minister Teresa Wat and Premier Christy Clark — hosting their “sister province” counterparts from Guangdong, including some senior CCP officials, at the May 2016 China-Canada Economic and Trade Cooperation Conference — One Belt One Road Initiative Workshop, held in Vancouver. Clark told the conference she looked forward to “building a one road, one belt policy between our two countries our two provinces.”

The objective of the MOU, stated internal memos from B.C. government staff, “is to strengthen cooperation between the provinces to jointly examine mutually beneficial opportunities presented by China’s One Belt One Road Initiative and British Columbia’s Pacific Gateway Strategy: to enhance maritime connectivity and expand two-way investment and trade in goods and services from energy and natural resources to value added products, professional services, international education and tourism.”

Former BC Liberal premier Christy Clark and her international trade minister Teresa Wat attempted to form deeper connections to China during the 2013-2017 term in office. Here they are shown welcoming Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei to B.C. as part of a project with Telus in 2015. In 2016, Clark, Wat and then advanced education minister Andrew Wilkinson (now leader of the opposition) signed an MOU on China's Belt and Road Initiative. 

Pacific Gateway is a multi-billion dollar network of road, rail and port infrastructure aimed at increasing exports overseas. It includes prominent projects such as the Port Mann Bridge, Fraser Perimeter Highway, Deltaport Terminal expansion, Vancouver International Airport expansion and the Site C dam to provide electricity for increased LNG production for export — with China being the main buyer.

A ministerial backgrounder for Wat stated that “Chinese officials have repeatedly noted that Canada can participate, especially as an investor or a partner …but observers say Ottawa’s decision last year to not join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) severely hampers Canadian business chances.” (In March, 2017, Canada’s new Liberal federal government signed on to the AIIB, a Chinese state-backed development bank that is a component of BRI.)

Wat told the B.C. Legislature in April, 2018, “This memorandum meant much more than just another agreement between the two provincial governments. It was a pivotal step in extending the belt and road initiative to North America, which was not originally covered.”

No one contested Wat’s statement and NDP Premier John Horgan declined to comment on his government’s continued support for China’s BRI. Wat and Clark also declined interviews.

Wat is MLA for Richmond North Centre, which holds the most concentrated population of Mainland Chinese residents in Canada. She is a frequent attendee of events held by China’s consul general in Vancouver and she heavily promoted trade with China during her 2013-2017 tenure as provincial trade minister. In this time Wat and Clark also touted more international students from China, Huawei’s entrance into Canada’s 5G network and led B.C. to become the first jurisdiction outside China to issue Renminbi bonds.

All this was done in the absence of a free trade agreement between China and Canada. B.C. bureaucrats did raise internal questions about provincial/federal mandates, however.

“We do not need approval from the federal government for the MOU or the Joint Declaration. We simply need our BC Ministry of Justice to review and approve the documents,” wrote Donald Haney, executive director, Economic Policy and Asia Pacific Relations, Intergovernmental Relations Secretariat.

Global Affairs Canada, Canada’s ministry in charge of international trade, declined to comment on what position the country takes on the Belt and Road Initiative, which is strongly rebuked by the United States. A Global Affairs spokesperson added, “the federal government does not tell provinces and territories what they can and cannot do within their own jurisdictions.”

Saint-Jacques said because the MOU is not a legally binding agreement he takes no issue with it; in fact the MOU is a “good move” to signal investment interest from B.C.

B.C.’s MOU, “remains general in nature,” said Saint-Jacques.

“The hope is it would lead to some [BRI] contracts for Canadian companies. But in practice it remains very difficult for Canadian companies to get business,” said Saint-Jacques, noting despite Canada pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the AIIB, Canadian companies have reaped nothing, to date.

However, there is more acute concern over BRI in places such as Greece, said Saint-Jacques, where the Greek government has allowed China to own and effectively control its ports, and in turn force Greece’s hand at the European Union, leading Greek officials to “water down language and avoid direct criticism of China.”

Saint-Jacques said any concerns B.C. is too close to Beijing can nevertheless be put on pause momentarily, given the deteriorating diplomatic and trade situation between the two countries since the December, 2018, arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou.